"Your Daily Tripod" reflects the personal Fourth Day journeys of its authors and editors. We are happy to have companions like you share in this project. Our prayer is that these reflections will invite and inspire your Fourth Day journey of Piety, Study and Action as much as writing or editing them inspires our journey and brings us all close moments with Jesus and our neighbors.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Faith Without Works Is Dead

See how a person is justified by
works and not by faith alone. For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so
also faith without works is dead. (James
2:24, 26)

Blessed
the man who greatly delights in the Lord’s commands. (Psalm
112:1)

Jesus
summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come
after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever
wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.”(Mark 8:34-35)

Ah, the old
faith vs. works debate. You know the basics: Protestants say we’re saved by
faith alone. Catholics say we show our faith by our works. I’m no theologian,
but I suspect that chasm isn’t as deep in practice as it sounds in theory. For
if we are saved, are we not bursting to share the Good News with others? Do we
not want to do all we can to bring souls to the kingdom? Do we have to do that? Does that really
matter? Isn’t the important thing that our hearts and souls are on fire for
Christ, and that we attempt to live our lives and relationships reflecting
that?

We’re all
on a mission here, a mission whose outward appearances vary by individual and
by time and place. It may be raising a family for some; for others, it may be
drawing others to faith by a charism in the arts. It may be a ministry in
social justice or with friends, or it may be a ministry of cloistered
contemplation and meditation.

Picking up
that cross and living a Christ-centered life involves loss—loss of self, loss
of demons and doubts, loss of fear and ego. It is through our attempts to live
that life that we show our love—for Christ and neighbor, difficult as both may
be at times. For me, all this gloriously blurs the line between faith and
works, and leaves me indifferent to the great debate. And I suspect this is one
of those debates that will matter little in the next world, for we’ll all be
too busy singing the Lord’s praises.

Action

What works
does your faith result in today? Make a list. Thank God for the gift of your
ministries. Resolve to do them joyfully.